From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait (ECW) at the UN headquarters, Yasmine Sherif, gas said that nations ravaged by conflict and violence in Africa requires at least additional 17 million children to bridge the gap in their primary and secondary schools education.
Sheriff, who was on a visit to Nigeria to assess the progress of the ECW programme in North East Borno, disclosed this in an interview with the Daily Sun in Maiduguri, and called for more support to Nigeria and Africa in the education of school-age children affected by conflict.
“In Nigeria, there are 20 million out of school children, and in the North East alone, there are two million out-of-school children. Africa needs more 17 million children in primary and secondary education,” she disclosed.
She explained that the ECW programme is a global fund for education of children in emergencies and areas affected by protracted crises. North Eastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, have been affected by over a decade of Boko Haram insurgency, which displaced three million people with nearly a million forced to abandon schools, according to the UN humanitarian coordination office in Nigeria. Sherif said many of the girls that fled their homes with or without their parents have been victims of sexual violence and abuses. She said some of the school-age children were also victims of forceful conscription by armed groups. “These are children left with nothing but a tiny hope with education, which they can start a new life,” she disclosed.
She expressed confidence in the effectiveness of the ECW programme, especially in Nigeria. She said many of the children she met at schools in Borno can now identify letters, read sentences which they could not do before.
The UN chief called for global support for the children, maintaining that such support would also accelerate Africa’s growth.
“This effort is important to reintegrate these children who have been abused back to the society.
“We saw children using technology to study, re-learning to be part of community, learning to read and write, learning alphabet,” she said.